Kingdom Hearts: Ties to Darkness
by devonm0
Summary: In response to the appearance of the Shades; a new foe reminiscent of the Heartless, Sora, Kairi, and Riku have been summoned by Yen Sid to combat this little-known menace. Traveling once again from world to world, only they can put a stop to the Shades.
1. A Strange Dream

Prologue: A Strange Dream

"Sora! Dinner's ready! Come on down!" Called the voice of a young woman; Sora's mother.

"It's happening again." A boy's thoughts, Sora's thoughts.

"Sora?" The woman called again.

"What's going on?" Sora's thoughts heard once more. He was in his house, and in front of him, between he and his mother, was a being similar to a Heartless. It wasn't a Heartless though, Heartless are instinctive creatures. This…thing seemed to be scheming something, so it was almost like a Nobody as well. "Wait, so it's different this time!" Again, Sora's thoughts.

The thing was somewhat like a Heartless in appearance, yet at the same time it was its own variety of creature. It had no hair; the top of its head was completely rounded, and it looked powerful based on its bulging muscles. In fact, it looked like the shadow of a body sculptor. In any case, Sora knew from the way it was making advances on his mother that it needed to be stopped. "Hey ugly! Get away from her!" Sora yelled. The creature heard him, surprisingly, and turned to face him before bellowing with rage. It was obvious then that it understood his words. He ran through the living room, expecting it to follow like it did.

"Sora! What are you doing?" His mother asked in an alarmed tone.

"I'll lead it away from the house! You find some place to hide! It's probably not the only one!" Sora called back before muttering, "At least, if the past is any indication."

"Sora, no! Come back! I'm your mother, I'm supposed to protect you!" His mother retorted. After a few moments of silence, she sighed and said under her breath, "Oh well, it seems he's grown up quite a bit since I last saw him."

"He has, hasn't he?" A deep, gloomy voice asked.

"Who? W-who's there?" Sora's mother asked as she turned around. As if in reply, a figure, somewhat similar to the one following Sora, yet meager in comparison, seeped silently up through the floor behind the woman. A scream followed shortly, presumably from the woman, and meanwhile Sora had just led the muscular creature outside. He was about to jump into the small boat that he used to get to the island where he and Riku hung out when he was attacked from behind by the muscular creature, who used something frighteningly similar to Riku's Dark Firaga attack. Sora was able to pick himself up quickly, but when he tried to counterattack with the Keyblade he was met with the shocking sight of his mother, obviously being controlled by another of the creatures. He wasn't sure if it was a possessor-type creature or a puppeteer, but he was sure that he couldn't fight his mother. When his resolve faltered, the Keyblade vanished from his hand, to his great shock. He was then attacked by the muscular being, who used another Dark Firaga. Knocked off his feet, he struggled to get up as he muttered,

"Not good." Suddenly he heard a sharp, rhythmic ringing, and he couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

***End dream sequence***

Sora groaned in his sleep as his alarm clock went off. After almost five minutes of constant ringing, Sora pressed the snooze button and groaned again before jolting into a sitting position. "Wait, what happened?" He asked himself. As he thought, he remembered the strange beings like human shadows, and how one had ensnared and enslaved his mother. Then he remembered. "Mother?" He called, worried about the woman after his experience with the creatures. Sure enough, his mother walked into the room, looking quite well.

"Yes Sora?" She asked, looking alarmed that her boy seemed so uneasy. Sora groaned before asking in a hurried tone,

"Mother, what happened to the shadow creatures? I thought-"

"Shadow creatures? Boy, you've got some imagination all of a sudden! Did you have a bad dream or something?" Sora's mother asked. Sora tipped his head in confusion, asking,

"A dream?"

"Come on Sora, I have breakfast on the table." His mother said before leaving the room. Sora sat on the edge of the bed for a few moments before recalling that it was, indeed, a dream. Still, it had seemed real, he even thought he had felt the pain of being hit with that Dark Firaga. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts before heading downstairs to eat. He soon pushed almost all thoughts of the dream out of his mind, but he couldn't help feeling concerned enough to think about it, even if it was minimally. He was rightfully concerned; as he ate his morning meal a portal of darkness opened to accept the muscular, bald shadow creature into its depths, then closed around it.


	2. The Menace of the Shades Part 1

Chapter 1: The Menace of the Shades Part 1

Sora clashed with his friend and rival Riku, both using their toy swords as they always did when competing as such. The brown-haired boy had debated in his mind whether or not to speak of his dream to his friend, though he ultimately decided that unless it was important it was better that he didn't. As the two youths crossed swords, a third individual, the redhead named Kairi approached with a smile on her face. Riku saw Kairi and for a moment, became distracted; an opportunity that Sora refused to waste. Underhanded as it may have been, Sora and Riku had long ago agreed to treat their contests as seriously as they would a real fight, and so Sora struck out at Riku with his sword. The silver-haired youth had almost no time to react, but his reflexes were very well developed, and he was able to turn the attack into another clash of blades.

Riku quickly won out over Sora, knocking the brown-haired youth's sword out of his grip before pointing his own at his friend triumphantly. Unlike the Keyblade, that toy couldn't be called to Sora by his will, and so he had truly lost. Riku laughed heartily while Sora lightly sulked. The silver-haired friend then looked at his rival and said,

"So then, if we pick up where we left off when this world was taken by the Heartless then the score is 1-2. That sound right?"

"Uhm, yeah I think so." Sora said, still feeling bad about the loss since he thought for sure he had bagged victory thanks to Riku's becoming distracted. Riku chuckled a bit more, then stated,

"Don't get so down. Hey, you almost had me, and it's just for fun anyway, right?" Sora looked at Riku for a bit with his still sulky face, which then became a smile. Suddenly he caught sight of a bottle floating in the ocean.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asked.

"I think so." Riku said, while at the same time Kairi replied,

"Could be." The trio of friends rushed over to the bottle, Sora snatching it up and uncorking it before removing its contents. It was a rolled up letter stamped with King Mickey's seal, just as Sora had thought it was. He couldn't explain it, but something seemed off.

"Well?" Riku asked. "Read it!"

"Oh, right." Sora replied before scanning over the unrolled paper and starting to read aloud.

"Greetings from Disney Castle,

I have received word that Master Yen Sid has requested your presence. Why he did not contact you directly is anyone's guess really, but regardless I found it the perfect opportunity to write to you all. Sora, Kairi, Riku, if any of you catch any glimpse of Heartless-like creatures with a new symbol on them, please let Yen Sid know when you visit him. This meeting he has requested with you must be of dire importance, so please depart as soon as you finish reading this letter. I have enclosed a new form of Gummi Ship that can be reduced to the size of an individual Gummi Block. Strike the block with a Keyblade and it will grow to full size. It's quite remarkable really! Good luck!

With high regards,

King Mickey." After reading the letter, he rolled it up, then muttered,

"I didn't think it was just a coincidence…"

"Excuse me? Hey, Sora! Do you know something about this?" Riku asked while maintaining a smile. Sora nodded, then started to explain about his strange dream. The details were shocking to both Riku and Kairi, who said in unison,

"Then we should go." They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders with a bit of a laugh, which Sora found inappropriate for the situation but didn't mention anything about. Riku then continued to say,

"As His Majesty stated, Yen Sid will no doubt want to be made aware of this. Therefore, the sooner we leave, the better. The bottle should have a Gummi Block in it, right? Well let's get moving then." Sora nodded with a grin, then shook the bottle with the neck pointed downward toward his hand. A Gummi Block fell out, and with everything going according to plan, the brown-haired youth summoned his Keyblade. He placed the block on the sand, then took a swing at it with the weapon. The resulting transformation into the Gummi Ship mentioned in the letter was quite unexpected, seeing as it more or less bounced to life and bloated outward into the shape of the vessel. Still, they had their way off the island, though their method of getting to the different worlds was far less obvious, seeing as the routes Sora had used during the battle with the Nobodies would no doubt have been closed off. Regardless, they knew that standing around wondering wouldn't do a thing, so they prepared to set off with the intention of figuring something out as they go along. When they launched the ship toward the stars, there was a beeping sound followed by a mechanical voice.

"Autopilot function set. Destination is Yen Sid's Tower. Estimated time of arrival: 1:20:00. Please relax." The trio was awestruck by the new Gummi Ship and it's new functions.

About a third of the way to the tower, a swarm of small, ethereal-looking vessels, each decorated with a symbol in the shape of a grey heart with a jagged crack down the middle of it and a black circle at the very center of it came into view. The mechanical voice whirred to life once more, stating,

"Sentries detected. Switching to combat mode. Autopilot maintained. Charging Ultima Cannon. Firing sequence to begin in 5, 4,3, 2, 1." With that, a noise that sounded like a terribly loud explosion sounded as the cannon was fired. The fired shot vaporized the swarm, again impressing Kairi, though Sora and even Riku were expectant of such a result. After the damage was done to the incoming vessels, the mechanical voice said,

"Sentries eliminated. Increasing speed, we will likely encounter more after that course of action." In response to this, Sora gasped in surprise and Riku asked in a pissed off tone,

"Then why the hell did you use it? Doesn't this thing have any other way of dealing with threats?"

"Affirmative. Stealth mode is an applicable option." The ship responded. Riku shook his head in disbelief, but when Sora placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, he allowed himself to calm down as the brown-haired youth said,

"It might have been a glitch in the computer's logic program. Give it the benefit of the doubt, alright?" Riku sighed as he gave in, deciding it best not to fight with allies. Surprisingly, the rest of the ride went along smoothly, and when they disembarked, they found it strange that they were forced to arrive outside the tower. On top of that, there was an unnaturally dark cloud literally hanging over the tower; something was wrong, and the trio was quick to get inside so they could find out what had happened. When they got inside, they got inside, they could immediately tell that Yen Sid had unwanted company, as a large chunk of the staircase had been taken out.

As the three young humans sought a route to Yen Sid's room at the top of the tower, their search was ultimately cut short by the appearance of eight small, black puddles of something unknown, with what appeared to be pitch-black vapor coming off of them. Soon they started to change shape, taking on more of a form. They became what appeared to be tiny people of the same pitch-black color with blade-tipped arms, spear-like horns, and literally blank faces except for what appeared to be a mouth, which in turn housed what appeared to be a sphere with the symbol that was on the ethereal vessels engraved on it. The creatures immediately crossed their arms before thrusting their right arms forward while pulling their left back so the joint of the blade to the rest of the arm rested beneath their left shoulders. Sora watched, seemingly stunned as his mouth gaped slightly. However, it didn't take long for him to regain his composure, and he summoned the Kingdom Key. Riku followed suit with his Way to the Dawn, while Kairi took up a stance with Destiny's Embrace. As the three readied themselves, the eight creatures lunged, all at the same time.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi each went on the offensive in time with the others, but just as the Keyblades should have made contact, the bodies of their targets turned to vapor as if to make a path for the blades to pass by harmlessly, then solidified once more before knocking each of the three away and into each other. The friends groaned and rubbed their heads, which had collided with one another, then they looked at the creatures before them. Sora looked at his friends and asked,

"Is it just me, or did that feel like it should have cut them?"

"You're right Sora," Riku replied. "I definitely felt the tension of a cut."

"What could it mean though?" Kairi asked, as puzzled as the other two.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Riku stated. "Although guessing games will have to wait! These things are getting ready to strike!" As Riku had just announced, the eight creatures were preparing to attack. They leapt toward the three friends, who simply assumed a defensive posture, Keyblades held out, and hoped they could figure out how to combat these new foes.


	3. The Menace of the Shades Part 2

Chapter 2: The Menace of the Shades Part 2

Just in time, as the small new foes were about to strike, they were forced to flee from incoming debris. The source, the savior of the three young Keyblade wielders is revealed to be a black-haired man who is also quite young. Despite that, his physique and atmosphere give the implication that he is well-trained. He is a Keyblade Master, though his weapon glows in a way none of the other three have seen before. Having been standing on the stairs above the rubble, the mysterious youth leaps from his perch and takes up a stance against the foes.

"Tch." The man scoffs, "Of course the Daggers are the ones left. Ah well. You three just sit tight. They won't be bothering you." And with that he raises his Keyblade and says, "Balloonra!" the cluster of six balloons that make up the water spell appears above and in front of the youth, who leaps at it and cuts into it, scattering the balloons which then arc at the foes. Though there are only six balloons all eight of the foes, Daggers as the youth called them, are dealt with. The youth looses a relaxed exhale before he is confronted by Sora and Kairi. Kairi is the first to pipe up, asking,

"Hey, what's that Keyblade?" The youth is about to answer, but then Sora asks,

"Yeah, and what's the light it gives off?" This too, he tries to answer, but Kairi asks,

"How did you take out all eight with a spell that only has six projectiles?" The youth sighs, and says,

"I will be more than happy to answer your questions. But please, one at a time." Sora and Kairi looked at each other sheepishly, and then Sora looks back at the youth and starts,

"Okay then, let's start with-" However, Riku interjects with a question that radiates suspision.

"What your name is." Sora looks at Riku and asks,

"Hey Riku, what's your deal all of a sudden? He saved us. Shouldn't you be nicer about it." Riku rolls his eyes, which the youth sees, but then the stranger tells Sora,

"It's okay." He then looks at Riku in silence for a few seconds before saying,

"My name, is Kuchiku." Sora can't help cracking a smile at this knowledge, and asks,

"Coochee-coo? You mean like what a mother says to a baby?" Kuchiku sighs and gives a gruff 'hmph', before explaining,

"No. Kuchiku, my name, it is far darker then what you're thinking of. My name means destroyer. I don't know why it's my name, but it is." Sora stops what he was about to say, looking down, and says,

"Oh." Kuchiku laughs softly, but then the tower begins to shake. Sora holds Kairi tight while Riku tries to look up and get an idea of what's going on. Looking at Riku knowingly, Kuchiku tells him,

"It's the Shades. As you've noticed they've invaded the tower. I thought I'd taken care of them all, however it would seem that reinforcements have arrived and are trying to bring the place down."

"What?" Riku asks in shocked frustration. Sora looks at Riku, then Kuchiku and asks,

"Well what should we do?"

"'We' shouldn't do anything. Yen Sid's not here. He sensed the threat and fled to Disney Castle." Sora remains speechless for a while, and then, in disbelief asks,

"What?! You mean-"

"You just missed him." Kuchiku says with a nod. "I'll hold things together here. Don't worry, I have no intention of dying. After all," He smiles at them, "You still have questions." Sora can't help but smile back before leading Riku and Kairi away from the havoc. Kuchiku watches them disappear through the doors, and says to himself, "Good luck kiddo."

While the mysterious Keyblader fends off more Daggers that rush in, the trio headed by Sora returns to the Gummi Ship to set off for Disney Castle. They try to hurry because, assuming their location, the Shades will continue to seek Yen Sid at his new location; meaning,

"Can't this thing go faster? We need to hurry!" Sora asks in a tone that accurately defines his concern in reaching the castle in time. The fact that they once again encounter no more sentries brings Sora great worry, and while Riku tries his best to soothe his friend's grave concern, the brown-haired youth's feelings turn out to be well-founded. Just like the tower, Disney Castle has been shrouded in a sinister veil. The trio disembark and begin to survey the situation, however they don't get far before a quartet of Daggers emerges from the castle by way of underneath the threshold, to greet them. Sora growls, Kairi steps back, and Riku maintains a more calm demeanor while erecting a defense with his Keyblade, ready to erect a Dark Barrier if the need arises.

As if the Shades were reading Riku's mind, a fifth foe, this one far different and far larger than the Daggers, bursts through the door. This one has two different weapons for its arms, unlike the Daggers. One arm ends in an axe-head, while the other is in the style of a battering ram. On top of that, its front, which resembles heavily reinforced armor plating, indicates that attacks to its front would be just as ineffective as those to a Large Body Heartless. Along with the appearance of this new Shade, a familiar face jumps atop a nearby spire of the castle. 'Tis none other than the King himself.

"Careful fellas," Mickey starts warning them, "The big one's a Breaker! Any defense you can put up, that thing can just as easily bring down with that big ram!" Riku watches Mickey as if expecting something more, and when he doesn't get it he asks,

"That's fine, but how do we fight the damn things? Our Keyblades pass right through them!" Mickey scratches his head in confusion, and asks,

"You mean Kuchiku didn't tell you? All ya gotta do is mmph!" At that moment, a figure from the shadows grabs Mickey and silences him before staring down at the three with an obnoxious grin. Sora, in desperation and surprise, calls out,

"Your Majesty!" At the same time Riku yells in anger,

"Let Mickey go!" In response to this, more Riku's yell then Sora's, the figure gives a gruff chuckle before saying,

"Come to the Audience Chamber. We'll talk there." With that said, the figure takes Mickey and retreats into a Corridor of Darkness. Sora turns to Riku and Kairi and yells,

"C'mon!" And after seeing them nod their agreement they start to press onward, only to be stopped by the five Shades. Sora growls at their halted advance, while Riku yells,

"Move!" Of course the Shades find no intimidation in this, and continue their blockade. It's strange however, that they don't make a move to attack the Keybladers.

"Gah! They're toying with us!" Riku yells, blinded by the rage of not being able to assist his dear friend. One of the daggers moves in to attack, but Riku doesn't stop.

"Riku!" Kairi calls out, however he only stops when Sora pulls him back. While it seems as though the loss of momentum has created a perfect opportunity for the approaching Dagger to strike, the strike is parried by Lea, who as usual appeared spontaneously.

"Get going! And this time don't ask questions, Sora!" The red-haired pyromancer tells them before being taken to the ground by a couple of the Daggers; reminiscent of the time in the realm between. Unlike last time though, Sora doesn't look back, knowing very well the gravity of the situation. He leaves the situation to Lea and forges ahead with Riku and Kairi behind him.


	4. The Menace of the Shades Part 3

Chapter 3: The Menace of the Shades Part 3

The triad of Keyblade Masters: Riku, Sora, and Kairi, rush through the colonnade of Disney Castle, dodging and weaving around Daggers and some of another new type of rather small Shade. As they approach the door to the Audience Chamber, Riku notices that the door is barricaded by a row of thorny vines.

"Ugh, those things reek of darkness..." He backs away, instinctively trying to distance himself from the foul stench, but then Sora pipes up, asking,

"Darkness? Really, Riku? 'Cause it seems to me," He then starts hacking at the vines, which do not even begin to show signs of tearing or other trauma even though Sora's Keyblade definitely passes through them. "That anything as dark as you say these vines are should succumb to a Keyblade without much effort." Riku hums thoughtfully then, somehow not fully convinced that it isn't darkness, but still knowing full well that Sora speaks the truth. Kairi steps toward the vines then, reaching out with her hand. Sora and Riku both see this, and Sora grabs her hand and Riku pulls her back.

"H-hey! What?" The female Keybearer asks in slight surprise and annoyance.

"I should be asking you what, specifically what you're doing." Riku says quite calmly, although he is a bit flustered from seeing his friend attempt something that seemed just plain crazy.

"Look, I had a feeling okay? Trust me!" Kairi pleads with Riku, both verbally and physically. Riku crosses his arms, but then when Sora interjects by asking,

"You have to trust your friends, right? If not then who?" Riku sighs and says,

"Fine, I trust you. I'll-" he's cut off then, by the sound of the front gate being smashed in. "Augh! What now?" A Breaker rounds the corner then, and Lea is desperately hanging on to the battering ram, while at the same time trying not to be cleft by the axe head. Clearly the same Breaker that Lea drew the attention of. "What's it doing? Did Lea try to stop it from barging in?" It suddenly starts toward the group, having detected them and quickly managing to hurl Lea off. The redhead smacks into a wall, but quickly returns to his feet. Watching the Breaker get closer to the three, he yells,

"Whoa, watch out!"

"Kairi, whatever you're going to do, hurry! I'll try to buy you time. Sora, back me up!" Riku yells back to his group as he stands to defy the intimidating foe.

"Okay, I'm here for you. Let's do it!" Sora says, a stroke of confidence mysteriously flowing through him.

"Yeah, fine, except we don't know what to 'do' in this situation. We're help-" Riku says, only to be interrupted by Sora, who exclaims,

"Yeah fine! Don't ruin my moment, okay? If you want, you can stay back and watch over Kairi. I've got this!" He then jumps toward the left wall, and kicks off of it behind the Breaker.

"Wait you fool!" Riku cries out before growling and saying, "Fine. I guess I have no choice but to watch, if you're going to be like that." He smirks and steps back to observe. Meanwhile Kairi has approached the vines again. As she reaches out, she gets a sudden feeling of foreboding. Sensing that it's coming from the vines, she becomes even more curious about the feeling she had. She grabs one of the vines, and is instantly bombarded by negative thoughts other than her own.

"Let me go!" Cries a disembodied voice that apparently only Kairi can here. "Save me please!" Yells another. All of the voices she hears are either scared, angry, or sorrowful, she notices, and all she can think of as a result is,

"Emotions? Are our emotions the key?" She looks at Sora, seeing him beam with confidence, and then she says to herself, "I guess we'll see. Suddenly Sora attacks the Breaker from behind, and instead of the key simply passing through the beast, it cuts through. The Breaker emits some sort of disgusting, otherworldly howl, and then slams its ram into the floor as if starting to attack in some way. It's clearly not bested, and yet it suddenly vanishes shortly after in slams the floor, leaving the three Keybearers confused. Riku is the first to recover from his stupor, and asks,

"Okay, so what happened? I thought we couldn't fight them?" This comment brought the other two back to the current reality as well, and having heard Riku's question, Kairi explains,

"I think his sudden confidence had something to do with it." Sora and Riku look at each other in slight disbelief, and then Riku returns his gaze to Kairi before asking,

"Wait, so now I have to act like this bonehead to fight our enemies?" Sora gasps in response, before exclaiming,

"Hey! Take that back Riku, I'm no bonehead!" Riku shakes his head then looks at Kairi and asks,

"See what I mean? Bonehead Sora." Kairi laughs softly, but then returns her attention to the vines. With a sigh, she tells Riku,

"Well you may just have to learn to grin and bear it. We have no other leads after all." Riku sighs, then thinks of something that he decides to try. Thinking of how happy he feels after surviving a difficult battle, he attempts to channel the power of his emotions into his weapon, instead of exuding them outward. The result is a light around his Keyblade not unlike the one around the weapon Kuchiku wields. Sora and Kairi see this, and ask,

"Riku! How did you do that?" However, Riku ignores them and instead puts all of his focus into his weapon and his target. He pulls back to swing, and just as he swings Sora yells,

"RIKU! HOW DID YOU-huh?" He looks puzzled as Riku's swing did nothing to the vines. Wondering why, he looks at the Way to the Dawn, which isn't glowing anymore, and then to Riku himself, currently glaring daggers. Riku dematerializes his Keyblade, and then walks toward Sora and smacks him across the face. He growls and says,

"Don't do that again." Sora rubs his face gently, then crosses his arms to watch. Riku spawns his Keyblade again, and focuses once more on that feeling. The light quickly returns, and Riku takes another swing at the vince. Undisturbed this time, the Keyblade cuts through the vines each in two. The corrupt foliage then burns away, leaving the door no longer protected. "Well that takes care of that." Riku says, "Let's move on." Sora looks at Kairi, then back to Riku. Riku sees this and sighs softly before explaining, "I focused the power of my emotions into my weapon instead of emanating it. The light was no doubt caused by the concentration of the power in that small area. Had you a more powerful – far more powerful – emotion, you might have emitted a similar glow when you attacked the Breaker." He looks toward the door, then says, "But enough about that. I told you what you wanted to know, so let's go." Without really responding to that, Sora and Kairi follow Riku through the door to the Audience Chamber. Inside, they find the shrouded figure holding King Mickey, and being guarded by what must have been 650 Daggers and 500 of the other small Shades that they encountered along the way.

"Hey!" Riku yells. "What's the deal? You said you wanted to talk, right? So, let's talk! Put away your goons and let Mickey go!" The figure smirks and remarks,

"Oh, goons you say? Well I'm afraid I have nothing to say to such an insensitive individual as yourself. Besides, after hearing that, I doubt I have a choice but to let them rend you." Riku growls, then Sora yells,

"Yeah right! You never had any intention of talking to us at all, did you? Your idea was for this to be a trap! Well that's okay, we'll just take his Majesty back from you by force!" The figure clicks his tongue and responds with,

"Heh, I suppose you're a bit brighter than I ever gave you credit for. I probably shouldn't have held back before." Sora gasps, while Riku is just confused. The figure continues by saying, "However, I won't be making that mistake again. No, this time, I'm coming after you myself. No more letting minions do all the work." Suddenly Riku laughs, leading the figure to confusion and frustration. "And what do you find to be so amusing, Riku?" Riku puts his hands on his hips and explains,

"I don't know how you know our names, but if you think Sora's brighter now than you did originally, then you must have set your standard pretty low. Sora isn't smart, you see. That's my job." Sora looks to Riku while the latter is explaining, and when he finishes, the brown haired boy says,

"Hey! Now hold up a second! I'm not smart? Since when?" This causes Riku to laugh, but they don't get much farther into that topic before the figure bellows,

"Enough! Now, feed on them, my loyal underlings!" As if on cue, the wounded Breaker appears to join the 1000 or so other Shades in fighting the three Keybladers. Mickey gasps and cries out,

"No!" He tries to summon his Keyblade, but the figure's grasp on him is somehow restricting it. He growls to himself, but then thinks of an idea that he feels should work. Meanwhile, Riku, Sora,and Kairi get ready to fight. Lea catches up just then, and says to the group,

"Solid work, now let's-augh! Whoa! Where'd all these creeps come from?" Riku smirks and asks,

"What's wrong? You scared?"

"What?" Lea asks in disbelief, "No way! There's just an awful lot of them and I was curious!" Sora watches the Shades before looking back at the group and telling them,

"Enough talk for now, we've got something to do!"

"Yeah, now you're talking! We've got a king to save!" Riku replies with a smile.

"Let's show these clowns the difference between quality and quantity!" Kairi joins in, exclaiming. Lea also puts his own comment in with the group's, but his seems a bit less confident.

"Let's just get it over with." The figure looks over the rather ragtag group, and upon laying eyes on Lea, he says,

"Interesting. Tell me redhead, do you think you can beat even my daggers with your pessimism?" Kairi nods softly and thinks to herself,

"Aha, so that was it after all." Lea on the other hand, raises an eyebrow in confusion before asking,

"Pessimism? What does that have to do with fighting?" The figure laughs before saying,

"So it would seem that you have not been made aware. In that case I find it unfortunate that so many exist already who know our secret. Oh well, it still should be easy enough with these numbers." He raises an arm, and yells, "Hear me minions! I will join the fray shortly, but until then you must keep them at bay. I don't care how you do it, but you must make sure they do not reach me! Now go!" The Breaker starts to move with the rest, but the figure stops it, telling it,

"No. You will remain here with me while you heal. You may join them when that wound Is closed up." Meanwhile, the rest of the Shades stampede down the Audience Chamber. Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Lea follow suit, charging in the other direction to meet them head on.


End file.
